ALTAMONT — Fallout from a change in management at a local landmark — a convenience store and gas station — sparked controversy this week.
An exodus of long-time Ketchum’s employees following Fair Week has left the store understaffed, with a "help wanted" sign posted on the door. Employees say that they were fired; the new management says that the employees quit.

Additionally, a former Ketchum’s customer has claimed that the new store was selling crack pipes last week.

This August marked Stacy Delligan’s 10th year working at the local convenience store, she said. As of Tuesday, she no longer works there. After the new owners fired many of her co-workers earlier this week, she quit, said Delligan.
In a letter to the Enterprise editor, Delligan said, "We all put in extra hours during the Altamont Fair, as well as preparing extra food and advising the new lessee" This was rewarded by ‘Black Monday.’"
"Everyone was gone except us three females," Delligan told The Enterprise. Facing longer hours alone in the store they turned in their keys, she said.

Long-time owners Tom and Sally Ketchum recently sold their store to Altamont Petroleum, which is owned by the Connecticut-based company, GRGH, for $787,500.
Michael Dingman, who had been managing the store for the last couple of weeks, after the store changed hands, won’t be working there any more either, he said. Dave Singh, who oversees the store for GRJH, will be at the store with Ruba Kumar. Initially, Dingman had been managing the store because the regulars objected to Singh, said Delligan. "The community just didn’t want him," she said.

Singh referred The Enterprise to the company’s lawyer, Matthew Sgambettera, to answer questions. Sgambettera said on Wednesday that he wasn’t prepared to answer questions at this time. Regarding the change in employees, he said, "Employee turnover is normal in this business."

Crack pipes"

Glass pipes, billed as tobacco pipes, were on sale at the Altamont Sunoco last week.
"The owners brought them in for Fair Week," said Dingman, the former manager of the store. He said that he didn’t know what the blown glass pipes were meant to be used for.
According to Altamont resident Richie Sanderson, the pipes were clearly meant for smoking crack cocaine, although their box labeled them as for tobacco use. "I’ve been smoking for 40 years," said Sanderson, "and I’ve never used one of them to smoke tobacco."

His biggest concern, said Sanderson, is the drug rehab center, Altamont House, located a quarter mile away. As an alcoholic who’s been sober for 23 years, he speaks to patients at Altamont House, he said that he fears the suggestion a pipe could give to a rehab patient.
"I feel it is a shame," Sanderson wrote in a letter to the Enterprise editor this week, "that people can walk into a store in Altamont with their children and be exposed to an item used for smoking crack when we as parents and grandparents are doing everything in our power to keep people off drugs."

Altamont’s public safety commissioner, Anthony Salerno, went to the store after Sanderson alerted him to the pipes. Salerno found no pipes at the store and told The Enterprise that the owner "stated that he doesn’t have them anymore." It is legal to sell the pipes, said Salerno.